Scale Tool

To activate the Scale Tool, click the Scale Tool icon

in the Tool Box or press R. See Scale objects and components for more information.

Note: When working in the UV Editor, this changes to the Scale UV Tool, which contains only a subset of the following options useful for working with UVs.

Drag the center of the manipulator, or middle drag anywhere on the screen, to scale in three axes.
Drag a manipulator handle, or middle drag anywhere with a manipulator handle selected, to scale in a single axis.
Shift + drag in Component Mode to Extrude (see Extrude a polygon face, edge, or vertex).
Shift + drag in Object Mode to duplicate (see Duplicate).
Ctrl + Shift + drag in Component Mode to slide components along their edges (see Slide components along their edges).

Double-click the Scale Tool icon to display its options in the Tool Settings panel as described here.

Note: If the Scale Tool sticks or won't scale correctly, click Reset Tool in the Tool options. See Set or reset options for a tool or menu item.

Scale Settings

Axis Orientation: Specifies the coordinate system for the Scale Tool.
Tip: Middle-click the button to toggle between the last two selected orientation modes.

Object

Scales an object in object space coordinate system. Axis orientation includes rotations on the object itself. If several objects are selected, each object scales the same amount relative to its own object space coordinate system.

When you scale an object on all 3 axes simultaneously, the transformation always occurs in Object space, regardless of the current Axis Orientation.

Note: You can only key Scale operations in Object space. You can also only scale objects without components (for example, joints) in Object space.

World

(Default) Scales in the world space coordinate system. The object is aligned to the world space axis.

Component

Scales selected components along an average local reference frame that is computed using component properties like the normal.

Note: In Maya 2015 and earlier versions, Component mode was called Normals average mode.

Parent

Aligns the object to the rotation of the parent object. Scaling is constrained to those axes in the local space coordinate system. The object is aligned to the rotation of the parent object and does not include the rotations on the object itself. If several objects are selected, each object scales the same amount relative to its own object space coordinate system.

Note: In Maya 2015 and earlier versions, Parent mode was called Local mode.

Normal

Scales selected vertices or CVs in the U or V direction of the surface. Typically you would use this option for small sets of CVs. The manipulator indicates the surface Normal, U, and V directions.

Along rotation axis

Aligns to the Rotate Tool’s axes on the object. If you have set the Rotate Axis in the object’s Transform Attributes to a different value (which offsets the orientation of the object relative to the orientation of the object's local rotation axis) this attribute will have an affect; otherwise, Along Rotation Axis is the same as Object.

Along live object axis

(This setting does not work with Reflection on.) Sets the Scale Tool to move objects along the axis of a live object. Most commonly, you would make a construction plane live, but any object can be set live. When you have a live object and select this option, the move arrows of the Move Tool align to the live construction plane. (The geometry of the live object doesn’t matter; the move aligns to the axes of the live object.)

Custom

Lets you set a custom axis orientation. Custom axis orientation is automatically selected when you activate custom pivot editing mode. The offset coordinates update as you edit the orientation of the custom pivot. See Activate custom pivot editing mode.

You can orient the Scale Tool's X-axis to a component in the scene by clicking

beside the Custom axis fields and selecting one of the following options:

Tip: Middle-click the

button to activate the last selected option.

Set to Object: Sets the Scale tool to scale the selected object along another object's axis orientation.
Set To Component: Sets the Scale tool to scale the selected object along an axis defined by selecting any component.
Set To Point: Sets the Scale tool to scale the selected object along an axis defined by selecting a point.
Set To Edge: Sets the Scale tool to scale the selected object along an axis defined by selecting an edge.
Set To Face: Sets the Scale tool to scale the selected object along an axis defined by selecting a face.
Reset: Resets the custom axis fields to 0.

Pivot

Edit Pivot

Activates custom pivot editing mode. See Activate custom pivot editing mode.

Reset

Resets the custom pivot's position and orientation. See Change the pivot point.

Position

When on, snaps the pivot position to the selected component. By default, pivot position snapping is turned on.

Orientation

When on, snaps the pivot orientation to the selected component. By default, pivot orientation snapping is turned on.

Pin Component Pivot

When on, locks your edits to the custom pivot in place, letting you use the same custom pivot to transform components on the same mesh or on a different mesh. See Pin the custom pivot.

Pivot pinning remains locked during component selection changes, object selection changes, and when you switch to Object selection mode.

Note: Pivot pinning is only available when a custom pivot has been set. See Change the pivot point.

Bake Pivot Orientation

When on, this saves any pivot orientation changes to the selected object's transform as soon as the change is made.

Show Orientation Handle

Determines whether to display the rotation control in pivot editing mode. Disable this to avoid accidentally re-orienting the pivot if you only want to move it.

Pivot Reset

Determines how the custom pivot's position and orientation is reset when the Reset button is clicked. Select from the following options:

Center Pivot: (Default) Resets the pivot to the center of the object's bounding box.
Zero Pivot: Resets the pivot to the object's origin.

Scale Center: Lets you scale object components about the object’s pivot point.

Default: Lets you scale the selected objects about each object's individual pivot point.
Note: In component selection mode, all objects scale about a pivot point in the center of the selection.
Object: Lets you scale the selected objects about each object's individual pivot point.
Manip: Lets you scale all selected objects using the manipulator as a pivot point.

Transform Constraint

Lets you slide components along the edges or the surface of the active mesh.

You can turn on a transform constraint in the Modeling Toolkit or the tool settings for any of the transform tools.

Tip: Middle-click the

button to toggle between the last selected transform constraint and Off.

Off: (Default) Disables transform constraints. Lets you use the Scale Tool to scale your components without a constraint.
Edge: Lets you slide the selected components along the edges of the current object. See Slide polygon edges.
Surface: Lets you slide the selected components on the selected object's surface. See Move polygon components along a surface.
Note: You can also use Make Live to constrain tools to a surface. For example, you can use Make Live to constrain the Quad Draw tool to the surface of the mesh you want to retopologize. Transform constraints are disabled when Make Live is active. For more information on retopology, see Retopologize a mesh with Quad Draw.

Along Normals: (Default) When on, the Scale Tool snaps points onto the surface along the normal direction instead of using the closest point to the surface. Turn on Along Normals for predictable sliding behavior and to prevent points from popping off the surface of your mesh.
Note: Along Normals only applies to the Transform Constraint options.
Closest Point: When on, the Scale Tool snaps points onto the surface using the closest point to the surface.
Note: Closest Point only applies to the Transform Constraint options.
Step Snap: Lets you maintain relative spacing while scaling an object. Turn this option Off if you don’t want to preserve relative spacing while scaling. Select Relative and enter a value to determine the amount an object is scaled in increments.
In Maya 2015 and previous versions, Step Snap was called Step Size and was only available when Discrete Scale was turned on.

Tip: Middle-click the button to toggle between Relative and Off.
Preserve Children: When on, moving a parent object does not move its children.

Note: In Maya 2015 and earlier versions, Preserve Children was called Preserve Child Transform.
Preserve UVs: When this option is selected, moving components in the scene view causes the corresponding UVs to move accordingly in the UV space. The net result is that the texture does not become warped.
Prevent Negative Scale: When on, Maya disables negative scaling of components. Scaling along each axis is limited to positive values.
Note: Prevent Negative Scale does not support objects.